The Open Forum is your domain for anything and everything. Whatever you feel is inappropriate to discuss in other threads, you can discuss here. Want to talk about sports? You’re in the right place. Have a random question? Ask it here. Want to poll the community? Do it here. The Open Forum is what you make it.

I often times read comments where people discuss game reviews. I’ve been part of those discussions. I’ve criticized metacritic many times, but it’s more than that. There is more to the story. Perhaps… perhaps game reviews just need to change. The way we go about reviewing games, scoring them, etc.

If you have the time, check out this report Kotaku posted the other day. It’s quite good, and might be surprising to those who know little about metacritic. I recommend it.

Leon Keyv

that being said, why doesn’t Gematsu do any game reviews?

DrForbidden

Perhaps because they would be accused of being biased or corrupt like every single video-game reviewer out there, whether deserved or not…

That said, Gematsu does occasionally publish reviews, though they are extremely rare. They are probably understaffed.

It’s just time consuming, and Sal mostly runs Gematsu alone. Adam does help out, and you will see articles posted by Olivia every so often. For the most part, it’s all Sal. (It’s hard to find time to play and review games when you run a website.) Sal is awesome! =)

I also have to talk about the occasional guest articles. Sometimes, you will see stuff posted from Gematsu regulars. (Like Roland. http://disqus.com/ro_kurorai/ )

I brought this up for good reason. I’ve been brainstorming about ideas for community focused articles. I think reading reviews from Gematsu members would be interesting. =)

What do you think? Just something that was on my mind.

Haku_Luvs_You

Is there a way for some readers to do reviews? I do an import review blog on Gameinformer so I can post some occasionally. I mean as a poor college student I don’t always have time or money to play them. And I’m certainly no expert at writing, but I wouldn’t mind doing some. Right now I’m working through New Love Plus for review. But I can do any reviews in general. :)

Edit: Lol I must have skipped the end where you asked about this idea. My bad XD

If you have something you would like to submit. Feel free to get in contact with Sal, or even me if you like. I’m in contact with Sal every day more or less. I’ll be sure he gets it. =)

(My email is slash789 at gmail dot com)

Thanks!

Pyrofrost

I thought about doing reviews, and I would actually be interested if it is something that could lead to me being employed by Gematsu.

One thing about me though, I don’t provide scores. I provide information to give a consumer the ability to make an informed decision, and I give my opinion on the game.

I recently did a review for my Japanese gaming community on facebook for Tales of Xillia 2. While it is very concise; I feel I made it informative, without creating a wall-of-text. If posting an article though, I would go into a little more detail.

I will post it here and you can let me know if it’s the kind of thing you’re looking for.
____________________________

A Quickie Tales of Xillia 2 Review:

I finished this game about 6 hours ago, and I just wanted to share my experience with it.

~I find this game to be a great follow-up to the first game. The story meshed very well with it. I was also happy with all the characters coming back, and having Gaius and Musee as playable characters. Also, the new MC and the new NPCs are great as well. I was absolutely in love with Elle and the game made me fall in love with Musee. So story and characterization were on point.

~The music was excellent. The soundtrack from the last game returns with a shitload of new tracks. The graphics….the same as Xillia 1. If you don’t like Xillia 1’s look, you won’t like this game’s look.The PS3s hardware deficiencies also show, as they did with Xillia 1 and many other games in the PS3’s library. (When you enter an area, shit takes all day to pop at times. The PS3 is incapable of handling much going on on-screen at once). If you want specifics, I can give them, just ask in the comments.

~The game has replay value through a post game secret dungeon, monsters getting a major boost in level, and a level 200 cap for your character. You also have the trophies which require you to grind till your fingers bleed for added replay value.

~While I loved the hell out of this game, there was only one glaring flaw to me. Nothing game-breaking, just something that personally peeves the hell out of me in any RPG…forced parties. This game has more forced partying than any RPG I can recall. So if you’re like me, and you don’t like playing with every single character, you’re going to find yourself with a party that you’re not happy with quite often.

~Though I can also give this game major kudos in legitimately providing one of the hardest boss battles I’ve ever experienced as a 20+ year veteran of JRPG gaming.

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Please
feel free to post them below. All of your input would be greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance, my friends.

Haku_Luvs_You

Interesting. Will certainly check it out. I did a review on the original a while back giving it a perfect 10. Absolutely blown away by it. Loved the battle system, and the switching out of members, loved the animation, paced extremely well too. And the fact you could pick 2 protagonist gave it great replay value. No doubt my favorite Tales game.

Pyrofrost

It really is a great game, there are just a few things that make it suffer. If I were to rate Xillia I would have given it a 9 or 9.5
If I were to rate Xillia 2, I would give it an 8 or 8.5

It’s only slightly not as good as the original. However that forced partying is something that drives me up the fucking wall. Once or twice for story reasons doesn’t bother me so much; but it happened constantly in this game. It was entirely too much. Not enough for me to hate the game, but enough for it to effect my overall experience and opinion of the game. Especially when I have my preferred party, and this happens from start to near finish.

Thanks for mentioning me. I’ve just finished a couple of awesome games, including FPSes that aren’t your usual cookie cutter modern military “America, fuck yea!” mold (yea, I’m not particularly fond of modern military FPS games). So I thought I’d like to share my thoughts on the whole COD success story and why it’s important for gaming. I mean, there’s always a choice, right. I don’t like them, I don’t buy them. Simple as that.

I’d also like to write some reviews of the amazing games I’ve recently wrapped up. Gonna get in touch with Sal soon. If everything works out and I do not completely suck at writing acceptable articles I’d try to contribute to the “Game Reviews” section.

Sal is really awesome! You (the community) must know that he basically runs the site solo. Administration, posting and translating articles and, well, then he’s got that little time-consuming “real life” thingy. I’m sure you’ve heard about it already. So helping him out and contributing to Gematsu is a real pleasure and privilege. Yoroshiku!

After reading the article, I think there is an inherent bias, though slight, in it. While the article raises valid points about publishers using MC scores to threaten developers, and also about problems inherent in any meta-scoring system, it strikes me that a number of the dissenting voices in the article are just whining because their product got a low score.

First of all, I would like to point out that meta-reviewing and meta-scoring is not perfect. It always has issues, just like 95% of all statistical methods. Nothing is ever a perfect fit. There are literally hundreds of reviewers out there today for video-games, and even more for films. Opinions vary and so do scales. The benefit of meta-scoring is to distill a selected, respectable number into an easy-to-interpret score on comparable scales. This is meant to inform consumers.

I agree that it’s morally wrong for publishers to use meta-scores as blackmail or leverage, but this is an issue between the publisher and developer, and not the meta-score itself. We also need to understand that, in the real world, developers’ past achievements and failures are almost always taken into account when we are soliciting investments for their new projects. In the absence of any other objective scoring system, MC scores have come into play here. This is a fact in ALL industries. When you apply for a job, you send in your resume and they select candidates based on your academic or vocational skills. If you have lower SAT scores than another candidate or if you only have a Bachelor’s degree compared to the other guy’s Master’s, you will either be offered a lower salary or you will be passed over (depending on what qualifications the employer is looking for, of course). There is nothing inherently unfair about that.

I also think that corrupt, bribed reviews from revenue-hungry publications and websites are an even bigger problem than meta-reviewing. Meta-reviewing is actually more likely to average out the scores if mediocre reviews from non-bribed reviewers are analysed along with the high scores from bribed reviewers.

As for developers changing their game to what they think reviewers want to see, I suppose it does happen, but it may be overblown, at least at present. Most times, games with high MC scores are actually good games. Most times, games with low MC scores are, in fact, poorly reviewed across the board. I don’t really see how meta-scoring is inadequate or evil, though I fully accept that it is never a perfect method.

And finally, whether a game reviews well and how much one enjoys it are entirely separate issues. I am fond of Clive Barker’s Jericho, though it has crappy reviews. I hated Dead Space 3 and Resident Evil 6, despite the relatively high scores. It is perfectly valid to enjoy and like products which were panned by critics. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem now is just that profit-oriented publishers are abusing the system, but then, that’s not new. From buying reviewers to imposing embargoes, this is all part of a bigger system of corruption.

I don’t know exactly how we can change this, but I think starting with small steps would help. Sure, metacritic could make some changes, that would help, but they won’t. Let’s be honest, It’s all about the money for them too.

Here is one thing I would do. Let’s say we all were in charge of reviews for some sort of video game website/magazine/whatever. I say we just change how we review games, from the start to finish. No scores, stars, letters, thumbs up or down, none of that.

The next step is finding a way to make our reviews entertaining, to make those who read, or watch, understand how we feel about the game. And no, we won’t have any kind of thing that looks like a stat sheet with +/- on the game.

Now, sure, this is likely going to piss publishers off, piss off the company that likely owns us. The next step is not necessarily in our hands now. We have to turn to our readers, we have to communicate with them. Share what we are trying to do with them, show them our passion, our drive, and then, hopefully, the readers will be our backbone. If you have the community with you, on the same page, I think you can do big things, great things.

Sure, I know this sounds quite difficult but trying to change something like this isn’t easy. You have to hope that what you are doing inspires everyone. It might even inspire the others. It might inspire them to change as well.

The final goal in all of this is simple. Return game reviews to what they are supposed to be. It’s someone opinion. They decide what they think about the game, based on the experiences they had. It doesn’t matter if the review is positive or negative, it’s just an opinion. It’s not hurting anyone, it’s not taking away bonuses from hard working people, it’s not part of some shady behind the scenes deal. It’s just a simple review of a video game.

Now, obviously, positive reviews might result in better sales, negative reviews might do the opposite. The thing is, at the very least, whatever opinion you have is just that, and it’s not something you have to be ashamed of, or concerned about. That’s how it should be.

To even be having this conversation shows how ridiculous this crap has gotten. It’s absolutely absurd.

All of this concerns me, because I’d like to go back to what you typed before – “This is all part of a bigger system of corruption.”

I fear that corruption will eventually cripple video games. In fact, it might already be doing so. At this rate, I’m afraid to see where traditional gaming is going to be at the end of this new generation. I’m talking about AAA game development, which is what most of us gamers have always know. I just don’t know…

DrForbidden

Sorry for the late reply. I’m quite busy these days and need to find the time to sit down and draft a lengthy reply.

I agree with your point that reviews don’t necessarily need to be about points or scores. The best reviews tell you what the reviewer/critic liked or disliked about the game, as well as what bugs or problems they encountered. In fact, I’m pretty sure that when reviewing process first started out decades ago, they were just that: somewhere along the way, scores started getting added, and they are commonplace now.

You wont like what I’m about to say next, though, I must admit. I don’t think scoring reviews are going away anytime soon. In fact, I think that unless the very fundamental facets of modern western society changes, such reviews are here to stay.

I suspect that, when reviewing first started out as a respectable job, times were very different. Societies were much more leisurely and certainly fast-paced deadlines were a rarity rather than a daily occurrence. Reviewing started changing with the times, because the people in a society started changing to accommodate the rapid growth of information. In other words, scored reviews exist because people are too busy and harried to take the time to read the actual, full length.

Modern consumers are simply too busy or too lazy to read actual reviews. They want the results summed up for them, in the form of a score they can easily understand. That’s why scored reviews became prominent, and given the instant gratification addiction of the social media generation, it is unlikely that this will change. Comments by people who evidently did not even really read the article they are commenting on are common, as I’m sure you know. It is too much to hope that they will actually read a dozen full-length reviews to get the full picture. They only care whether COD5 got a better meta-score than COD4, not whether it is a better made game or if supporting it heralds the death of creativity.

Even if journalists do the right thing and write comprehensive, unbiased critiques without easy-way-out scores, how long would they last? No scores mean that few people would bother to read them. This translates into low pageviews and low advertising revenue. Before you know it, they’ll be back to scored reviews. In a system where everyone is gaming everyone else, why would publications want to be honest? It would be financial suicide.

The idea you floated isn’t a bad one. In fact, it’s an awesome one. It’s about retaking, reclaiming something from the corporations who have twisted it so much that it has become a perverted shadow of its self. As much as I want to believe it can work, I am very doubtful it will. You see, the people that we must rely on to make the revolution work, ARE THE SOURCE OF SAID PROBLEM. The vast majority of consumers – and they number much, much more than the few numbers who find the whole thing distasteful – will resist any change that will make their lives less effortless. It’s the same reason why boycotts of Big oil companies or pharmaceutical companies or freaking Wallmart won’t work on any large scale setting: people are just too selfish. It’s not just apathy, either. These people will actually physically and psychologically resist you, even if you successfully show them how wrong they are. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the internet empowers and emancipates everyone regardless of the amount of knowledge they possess.

Of course, the high price of games themselves adds to the problem. At $60 a pop for current gen games, is it surprising that many middle-class gamers have to limit themselves to 1 new game a month? I’m sure you realise as well how tough it is to make the call which game you can buy this month, and meta-scores are often what they have to rely on. If games were only $10 each, you’d see a whole lot more people willing to experiment and branch out into new genres by buying games of various qualities and review scores. As it stands, it’s simply not an option for many gamers who have to make sure their purchase is the best value they can get for their money.

OK, that turned out much longer than I thought it would be. I’m sorry if it bums you out. It does me, and I see no real way out of the conundrum. Sometimes I just have to shut it out and not think about it; pretend it doesn’t exist for a little while. It’s great to be able to put it down into words and to share it with you, though. Your thoughtful discussions are always great to look forward to. :)

Thanks for the lengthy reply. I’m sorry for the delay on the response.

I don’t disagree with what you posted. Like you, it does kinda make me sick to my stomach, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

It’s sorta like I said above. Doing something like this wouldn’t be easy. You did a great job at explaining why it would be very difficult.

I did consider lack of free time in my above idea. If we did video reviews, or print reviews, whatever. We might have to consider two versions of both. Even if we did a shorter review, where we could quickly summarize our experience with the game, it would have to be constructed for someone with little time.

With that in mind, I still think you can find ways to hook people for the time you need them to be hooked. You might have to be creative about it, but you could experiment with ways to attract reader attention. It’s all part of trying to build and establish a community, which is something that always changes. You sorta have to tinker with it, you have to keep adding new things, interesting things, layers, for the community to absorb. (All without adding review scores, or creating some small little picture in photoshop with +/- about the game.)

I want to quickly touch on this. You brought up prices. I don’t think enough reviews talk about this. I also don’t think enough websites, magazines, etc. I don’t think they do a great job at giving consumers information based on what you discussed above. I believe the one game a month thing is quite common, hell, it applies to me fairly often… depending on the circumstances. This is something I would look at and focus on. It could be one of those new interesting things I discussed, another layer. Have a section that focuses on this – What game should you buy this month? etc. Now, how you go about this is something to be discussed, and possibly even tweaked as time goes on. Do you go with a simple – This is what we are enjoying playing this month thing? Or, do you go with something more community focused? How about both? You could even divide this up by genre. I can think of a few ways to approach this…

Moving on – Back to changing game reviews. You have to make sure everyone involved (staff members) shares the same opinion. If you don’t have everyone reviewing games on board with this idea, it’s going to lead to drama, problems, rage quits, etc.

I suppose the way I view it is like…

I’m not trying to force it on people, it’s more like… Hey, you can enjoy this too! You can have fun with our reviews too, you can read our opinions quickly too. You can do all of this, but we also offer this cool thing, and that cool thing, and this other stuff. I almost want the review to feel more like a friend telling you about their experience with the game.

Some of it would be subtle, the small things might catch readers eyes. etc. And maybe… just maybe… It might slowly change some folks. It might change how they go about buying a game, or reading reviews, etc.

The thing is, in the end, this way actually helps consumers.

It’s like when you stop and research about buying a new speaker system. You might go online, skim some user review, skim over some website reviews, compare prices, etc. You want to make a solid purchase.

Sure, not everyone does this. Especially when it comes to video games. Why? Well, kinda like you said, part of the problem is the consumer. They don’t want to spend the time required to research, they don’t care, etc. The other part is… Maybe the proper source doesn’t exist?

Typing out some of this has helped me realized something. My idea is bigger than I thought it was. So much so… that I almost would need to do more brainstorming, work out some rough patches, etc. It made me realize… it’s a big vision of an idea floating around inside my head.

The great part about it is, when you discuss it, you learn new things about it, about your own ideas, you just didn’t see it clearly. You also get another perspective, which is crucial, it’s vital. It helps you shape those cloudy ideas into something more concrete. Which is good. Then, you can start to discuss them in greater detail. =)

Sorry this went so long, and apologies in advance about me kinda jumping around with my ideas in this post. xD

DrForbidden

No problem, dude…

It’s rare to find someone so passionate about video games and the satellite industries who is willing to stand up for what he believes… :)

Warboss Aohd

basically mirroring Total Biscuit here, but correct none da less.

rockman29

There is nothing inherently wrong with meta-analysis. It’s the most trusted form of scientific analysis (but the safeguards and review process obviously doesn’t apply to metacritic, it’s not like it’s peer reviewed or has any governing body to protect from bias).

The problem is interpretation of meta-analyses, and giving more power to them than is needed. Metacritic scores have been used as measures of success and methods to determine funding to developers, and other extraneous things.

Imo, because of those things, the amount of confounding that can go into meta-analysis when it is not treated as a proper science is what is bad. Scores can be manipulated by different parties for different gains.

Meta-analysis is not the problem itself. Manipulation of it is a problem.

I merely consult a few chosen/favorite critics’ reviews (less than 5) but they barely make me change my mind unless the game’s a catastrophe (A:CM) or a technologically vastly inferior port on PS3 (that tidbit is barely mentioned in reviews anyways, except GI’s “the edge” category if they notice any differences between platforms).
Still, my favorite reviewers usually explain the stuff that matters to me in a spoiler-free way so I can get a better overall image of the final build of a game I’m eager to purchase d1/pre-order.

Metacritic’s weighing and scoring system is bollocks anyways, gamerankings.com is much more accurate and reliable :P

I’m shocked so many publishers tie their games’ success or the devs’ bonuses to metacritic scores.

Tac-Mex

So, what are you playing? I just pirated Riviera for psp, its pretty cool ^_^

Also, what console are you getting? PS4 or 720?

jujubee88

Is that on ps vitas store?

Skerj

Yeah it is, it’s like 9.99. I’ve been playing Guacamelee and Ragnarok Odyssey. I’m a sucker for anything that name checks Metroid (hella homages from that in the game) and the Castleroid type Castlevania games. As far as the latter, never got around to it so I decided to start this week for some reason.

Tac-Mex

I dunno

DrForbidden

Why are you happy you pirated a game?

almostautumn

Boooooooooooooo!

Tetsu

Dude seriously? Riviera is like 5 bucks to buy from the store…
Oh! and pirating is illegal, just in case you didn’t realize.

jujubee88

In a blog post, SCEJ boss Hiroshi Kawano just apologized to fans and explained the reason behind the shortage of VITA’s at Japanese retailers:

So the reason why we’re seeing small numbers from Media Create because of the shortage? Sounds legit….

jujubee88

No one can say, but on the week of and right now, there are people (on Neogaf and twitter) in Japan that find retailers are sold out and they are being put on waiting lists.

So, it’s not just a made up thing. VITA is being sold out across a few Japanese retailers right now.

Kurisu Makise

I’m happy, I really am. Competition is needed and a healthy Vita means handheld gamers will get better games across both 3DS and Vita.

Pyrofrost

I’m not worried about its success in Japan, it will be fine there. Even though times will be a little rough, everything will be fine. After all, it’s competing against the biggest name in gaming, and it also competing against something that got a year head start.

That year can make a difference, look what it did for Microsoft’s 360 for the longest this gen.

What I’m actually worried about concerning the Vita is how it has already been abandoned in the West. It really pisses me off that Sony wants to sell to the Western market, but acts like the JP market is the only one they care about or the only one that matters to them.
Sony has made no effort to push the console in NA. There has been no promotions outside of a couple of bundles, the game library is abysmal, the JP only price cuts, a complete lack of advertisement, and etc.

Sony is acting like they want the Vita to be PSP2 outside of Japan. This is just sad to me, because they have something with such potential; yet they are going out of their way to kill it before it really gets a start in the West.

Kurisu Makise

While I definitely think SCEA could do much better, I don’t think they’re quite as lacking as you made it sound. They’ve been pushing into different grounds in the west, focusing on digital and gaining indie developers first and foremost. People like Ubisoft haven’t given up, so I imagine there’s a a desire to focus on a few big retail exclusives, versus the soon to be many, many digital exclusives. Just looking at Western Vita, there is a significantly bigger effort in the way of First party titles versus Japan Vita where Kawano admitted First Party development isn’t what people want.

That’s a huge shame for Japan versus the big retail efforts in the west being first party games. Addressing the price cut and promotion thing, I believe that’ll ramp up more for the holidays as that’s when they can promote retail bundles. I don’t doubt another Madden Bundle is in store, plus whatever is planned for Christmas. Besides, in what region will we ever see Atelier Totori+ top a PSN top 10 or such a high amount of digital sales period? Honestly, that’s what the western market is like. I admit, there are things I’d like to see the western side do better. It sucks that Soul Sacrifice won’t get the same push it got in Japan. It sucks that in the market where first party releases are more important, the western studios still aren’t quite as committed versus PS4.

Still, even with all that, I applaud them for one thing, this is a heck of a lot better than PSP. My goodness they went out of their way to ignore that because of the PS3 messing up so badly.

Skerj

I wish Blood Dragon was the full Far Cry 3 instead of the Far Cry 3 we got. I had fun with it and all but I hated Jason and his friends, and well Blood Dragon has laser eyed dinosaurs and a killer soundtrack. I’d pay 60 for it easily if it were a full blown campaign.

Knygt

lol i dont think you’ll see these garbage casts returning if there is a sequel

Azuardo

Wow, been glued to Resident Evil 6 all this week. Done Leon, Chris and Jake’s campaigns, and just started Ada. For all the stick it got, this has not been anywhere near as bad as I thought from the reviews. Sure, it’s not classic Resi, but I have really enjoyed this for what it is.

Also bought Guacamelee, after the Metroidvania plugs and strong reviews. Only played a little bit, but really good first impression.

MosquitoLemon wanted to know how Rune Factory Oceans was. Well, I only played it briefly, but early signs are good. Haven’t done much combat or monster raising/planting yet – just mostly talking to villagers at the start and stuff. But things run really smoothly and there looks to be a lot of depth. Side-quests for villagers’ problems etc. Not sure when I’ll get more time with it, but I do really want to get back into it because it seems pretty fun.

ragnathebloodedge

I look forward to PS4 and as it is im unsure about Xbox 720. Kinect 2 built in charging for Xbox LIVE more of the same endless FPS from them. I bought A 360 as it had Jrpgs i wanted TOV,Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey.
I just hope SONY seriously does in the bring all PSN titles and we can keep all of them to be transferred from our current account and still ise them on PS4. Xbox 720 seems like it according to my gut feeling will have a harder time winning over this generation.

DrForbidden

I’m afraid there’s no chance of that happening unless the PSN titles don’t use the Cell processor.

Kefkiroth

If they manage to get Gaikai to work well, I could see streaming, which is what they said they will use to play PS1/2/3 games.

But for now it seems like it would just be a inferior experience if there is any amount of input lag or artifacts in the video quality. If Remote Play is any indication, it would be unplayable for most people on their internet setups.

LordKaiser

They should copy Microsoft and do the PS3 mini.

Kurisu Makise

I don’t know about a mini but an attachment would be most acceptable (with said attachment being sold with a premium bundle for those willing to pony up). There was a patent for said attachment anyway and I’m sure if they made the MB with expansion ports (PS2 style), it’d work out.

DrForbidden

^This. But since Sony is busy pushing Gaikai to make users rebuy PS3 games they already own, I don’t see that happening at all.

LordKaiser

Depends how Microsoft makes Sony reacts. If Microsoft don’t implement the online only nonsense it will be a threat to Sony depending on it’s specs etc.

DrForbidden

Let us hope, then. If Sony made a mini-PS3 attachment, I would certainly be inclined to buy a PS4 much earlier than I plan to.

jujubee88

If used like a cable box and DVR box (with added benefits of being a system overlay method for TV multimedia) than one can easily see the advantages a 720 would have over PS4 from a regular consumer perspective.

Add to that the fact a new Kinect might come bundled (with 720) and further add that there might be a discounted model – MS are really aiming to knock out the competition.

Again, this is based off rumors.

DrForbidden

I just finished MGR: Revengeance. Loved the story and plot, but in the end, the gameplay didn’t do anything for me.

Overuse of QTE and scripted battles really cheapen the experience, IMO. The final boss was such a ridiculous joke of a stereotype, though, that it felt like I suddenly walked into a slapstick comedy after sitting through a drama.

On the other hand, the story is fantastic. The themes and issues of child soldiers, war for the purpose of economics, the emergence of PMCs and the subcontracting of national defense and security to the for-profit private sector, as well as cybernetic and robotics advancements are all very well-researched and conceived in the plot. The writers really went out of their way to create a consistent and believeable world with the backstories delivered via Codec.

For anyone interested in reading more about child soldiers and how fucked up their usage is (spoiler: it’s REALLY fucked up), I highly recommend reading Romeo Dallaire’s ‘They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children’. I’m going to pick up a copy of P.W. Singer’s ‘Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry’ soon, for further reading.

DrForbidden

I just finished MGR: Revengeance. Loved the story and plot, but in the end, the gameplay didn’t do anything for me.

Overuse of QTE and scripted battles really cheapen the experience, IMO. The final boss was such a ridiculous joke of a stereotype, though, that it felt like I suddenly walked into a slapstick comedy after sitting through a drama.

On the other hand, the story is fantastic. The themes and issues of child soldiers, war for the purpose of economics, the emergence of PMCs and the subcontracting of national defense and security to the for-profit private sector, as well as cybernetic and robotics advancements are all very well-researched and conceived in the plot. The writers really went out of their way to create a consistent and believeable world with the backstories delivered via Codec.

For anyone interested in reading more about child soldiers and how fucked up their usage is (spoiler: it’s REALLY fucked up), I highly recommend reading Romeo Dallaire’s ‘They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children’. I’m going to pick up a copy of P.W. Singer’s ‘Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry’ soon, for further reading.

Revorse

Really? Combat was the best part of Rising to me. The story felt negligible. I just enjoyed how smooth the action was.

DrForbidden

Maybe because I just couldn’t get behind the controls in the end. I also felt that the scripted boss battles were too restrictive and forced. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

KingKellogg The Waffle Haggler

The story was imo the worst I have ever played in a game :

Knygt

The final boss was terrible

KingKellogg The Waffle Haggler

He was so stereotypical…

Charlottes Guardian

Been playing a whole lote of Tera lately due to just realizing it went free to play. While Guild Wars 2 is fun in its own right, Teras a nice change of pace… And after seeing that Dark Souls 2 Footage, I may just have to go run through Demon Souls 1 more time.~

So whats everyone else been playing? Anyone else as overly-excited for DS2 as I am?

Our final fantasy and kingdom hearts (series) are going down becuase square enix. The biggest blame is Final fantasy XIII and those stupid ios games!

Elvick

KH hasn’t been going down hill at all. Better than ever, in my opinion.

FF has always been mixed. Not liking a couple doesn’t mean the series is going down hill.

xMCXx

Nah, FF is at its lowest point.
Because SE wants to westernize games even thought they don’t even know how.

Elvick

Agree to disagree.

Bloodios

It’s been a year… and yet there isn’t a single word from Kodansha about what they are going to do about Blood Alone‘s situation… I mean, what the hell? I was happy purchasing every single volume from Seven Seas Entertainment until of course, the rights to the series was transferred and now sat in the hands of Kodansha, who obviously doesn’t want to be making contract with any other rival publishers in regarding to the series’ localization but at the same time, its Western branch sat on its ass and did nothing to the series ever since… So frustrating…

In the mean time, I got the whole Limit series ordered/pre-ordered from Barnes & Noble so screw you Doko Demo Doa!

watching Attack on Titan cant wait for ep2 and reading the manga too
just started watching GJ-bu and Devil Survivor 2 The Animation ep2 was sweet and Photo Kano,etc…man i need to take a break ;D

tubers

Will SE ever give the VITA a serious retail title that isn’t a port?

(Like Bravely Default on 3DS; something like FF-0/T3B/KH on the PSP)

Solomon_Kano

Eventually, yea. It’ll likely be a while. I mean, they’ve slowed some on their 3DS support as well. The only announced 3DS title they have in the pipeline is Gyrozetter and that was announced ages ago.

Let’s hope for something at E3 or TGS this year!

PrinceHeir

okay i just watched Kill Bill Vol 1 in Blu Ray with my friend.

and wow what an amazing film!!!

gonna watch Vol 2 next friday .

still bummed to learn that the japanese DVD is uncut and uncensored(no more black/white fights and censored words)

hopefully when Kill Bill Vol 3 comes out on Q4 2014(rumored) they would put the trilogy in one film uncensored/uncut on blu ray HD!!!!!!!!!!

Azuardo

Wait, do you mean you’re bummed the JP DVD is censored and cut, not uncensored and uncut? But yeah, good films!

PrinceHeir

no, i mean japanese is uncut, so im bummed to learn they have the uncut version, while the US version is censored(LOL)

Azuardo

Oh I see! I thought you meant you had the JP version so were bummed it was actually cut (but made a mistake). Ohhh, that does suck :/

PrinceHeir

this is the scene that was in black and white in the US version while japanese is on full color

Second playthrough of Atelier Ayesha, this time I shall fight the Final Boss and the second hidden boss (got the first one last play through). I never expected the Atelier series to be so…addicting. Tales was a great time sink but this is just on an entirely different scale.

Tenshiken

For some reason, I’ve recently been hooked on Hyperdemsion Neptunia mk2 I’ve also been going through persona 4 Golden. (Can’t wait for Soul Sacrifice to come out.)

ill be playing alot of catch up i got a backlog as big as mario on shroom
Tales of GraceF,Fire Emblem Awakening,Neptunia Victory,etc…
and watching anime :D

Knygt

trying to finish hitman, farcry3, and dishonored. lol

DesmaX

Hm, just got myself today a copy of the first Neptunia game (Someone offered me it + US$10 for my mk2 copy… Since it’s kinda rare I accepted it).

Kinda scared, but hey, it has an easy platinum, at least

almostautumn

Chest deep in Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus right now—
Also some Guacamalee, which is just amazing, amazing, amazing! The music is brilliant, art inspiring, and gameplay just classic, solid goodness.

Oh, and I might do a slam-through of Darkness 2 for the platinum. I’m not much of a trophy guy but because it’s an easy trophy and a game I just keep shrugging off— might just do a rental if it feels right.

Azuardo

Just finished Resi 6 and loved it. Ada is badass.

Probably gonna move on to Guacamelee now, but not sure of the order of other games I’ll do after that. I’ve got Enslaved and Deus Ex HR to do.

MosquitoLemon

Played Bushido Blade 2 and Mark of the Wolves for fight night yesterday, super hype

Revorse

Anyone here ever ordered from Play-asia before? How long do you have to pre-order a game? Like does it stopped a week or two before the release date? And what’s the best shipping? Or most reasonable where I won’t have to pay a whole bunch and wait like 2 months.

Elvick

I always pick the cheapest shipping with tracking. And it arrives relatively quickly considering, ultimately depends on where it ships from. When I ordered the KH Complete Soundtrack, it shipped from the US. So they clearly had some stock there, and so it didn’t have to ship from Japan like all my other stuff has.

I think most of the wait for me is with Canadian customs. I’ve never preordered from them though.

I’ve been using them for over 8 years now and have always picked the cheapest option available (free if your order is valued 25 USD or higher) and almost always receive the game in about 2-3 weeks. I live in The Netherlands, and I believe that many years ago they’ve sent me packages from within Europe (might be thinking of YesAsia, though), but these days it’s always been Hong Kong. Could also be because these days I only order Japanese/Asian version games whereas in the past I bought the occasional US version as well.

As for how long you have to pre-order… Well, that depends on the product. Some products run out of stock months in advance and don’t restock (figurines), while others can still be pre-ordered the day before release and restock a week later. If you want to pre-order a Monster Hunter or Square Enix game, I recommend doing so at least a few weeks in advance to avoid the extra wait. With limited editions you obviously wanna order them ASAP.

Revorse

Ah, I see I see. thanks for that info. So you haven’t had any problems with them, like lost packages or anything?

Nothing’s ever gotten lost, but once or twice a year I’ll have to wait like 5 weeks for my package to arrive. Even then, it’s probably just customs that’s to blame and not the Hongkong Post as they’re extremely reliable (unlike, say, the Royal Mail, which is like the worst postal service on the planet). If a package does get lost though, Play-Asia will refund you anyway even if it’s untrackable, so all you really have to worry about is time.

I’m very impatient so i choose Fedex for shipping. The Shipment usually arrives within 5-6 days of release. When you order, there are 6 shipping options, so you can check them out before purchasing. As for pre-order, I preordered Tales of Hearts R 3 days before release and I still got the first shipment bonus (Tales of Hearts infinite Evolve).

AdamBoy64

I’ve used Play-Asia quite a few times in the past. Never had an issue – and their support is quite good.

1- Weapon color represent rarity and strength from green being the weakest to purple being the strongest. Also it’s represented by stars from 1 to 10.

2- You don’t level up your characters but your class, You can change class every time you want on the class management counter. Each level up you gain 1 upgrade point that you can spend on mastering skills.

3- Characters handle special requests you can do and are varied but you can only do once.

4- Dumans will likely be available on Episode 2

5- You can recruit NPCs in quests including clones of your friends.

6- Gunblades are cross class. If it’s a good thing or not is debatable.

7- You need to do some special orders to unlock missions as well. Particulary of administrator Koffe.

never play the PS series but it sound like FF job system the lvling up part

LordKaiser

Sort of but it’s time consuming cuz it’s like leveling up 3 characters.

Locksus

I’m really, really excited for Dark Souls 2. DaS is one of my favourite games of all time and the second one looks to be as good, if not even better.
I’ve also played Ocarina of Time 3D quite much lately.
Really loving the 3DS and cannot wait for next week because that’s when Fire Emblem: Awakening releases in Europe. I thought that the demo was great. I’ve never been into strategy RPGs but it looks really cool.